Critic's choice

Melinda Houston

FREE TO AIR

MR & MRS MURDER Wednesday, 8.30pm, Channel Ten★★★★

If this is the benchmark for Channel Ten's new drama slate this year, I'm excited. I was excited anyway because I love Shaun Micallef and I really love Kat Stewart. But sometimes that kind of affection only leads to disappointment. Not in this case. Mr & Mrs Murder is a crime caper developed and written by Micallef and Jason Stephens (who started his career writing for The Comedy Company and went on to produce The King and Devil's Dust) - and it's a cracker. Micallef also stars, as Charlie Buchanan, with Stewart as his wife, Nicola. As husband-and-wife industrial cleaners, their day job is mopping up crime scenes, but their passion is solving said crimes, and, from the clever opening credits, you just know this is going to be fun. The exposition is handled neatly and from the first frame, Stewart is a stand-out. Seriously, is there anything she can't do? From the tortured Nat in Tangle to the bolshie Billie in Offspring, you just never feel like she's acting, and here she's instantly believable as a pragmatic cleaner with a sixth sense for whodunit, and as Micallef's loving wife. She also has the knack of making everyone around her look better: Micallef is great working off her; sometimes over-egged and Micallef-y in his solo scenes. But they certainly make an endearing and convincing couple. It helps that the script is terrific. Sure, there are identifiable Micallef moments (''Your suite, sir''; ''You're not so bad yourself.'' And: ''Do you have a reservation?''; ''I'm not crazy about your tie.''). But, elsewhere, the dialogue has a kind of conversational naturalism too rarely seen in Australian comedies or dramas. And with Shirley Barrett directing, we see the absolute best from a familiar and sort of familiar cast, including Jonny Pasvolsky (McLeod's Daughters) as Detective Vinetti, and Lucy Honigman as Jess, the Buchanans' niece and part-time helper. The comedy works. This is funny, and full of wonderful small moments. It also works as a whodunit. And it feels really fresh, taking some of those Remington Steele/Moonlighting/Castle tropes and a good dose of their vibe and giving it all a good tweak and a distinctly Australian flavour. And that, perhaps, is what's especially satisfying and engaging. It's not a cop show, a family drama, or a medical one; it's something that's completely itself, and it succeeds absolutely on its own terms.

Pay TV pick: Romanzo Criminale.

KEVIN MCCLOUD'S MAN MADE HOME Sunday, 7.30pm, ABC1★★★☆

Advertisement

Men of the nation, dream on. In this new series, Grand Designs host Kevin McCloud pursues the ultimate blokes' dream: to build the ultimate shed. No mega flat-screen or two-door bar fridge here, though. In typical McCloud style, it's all super eco-friendly, recycled, artisan and handmade. There's not even electricity, let alone a wall of power tools. Having spent six months getting the shell of his shed built and weatherproofed in last week's opening episode (hand-sawn logs, hand-cut shingles), tonight he's set on introducing some creature comforts - such as a window. He could meet his brief simply by buying a pre-loved window but, instead, he chooses to make his own glass in the middle of a field. It's that kind of project. He also makes a wood-burning stove from an old safe, a floor from milk and dirt, and glue from rabbits soaked in wee. And, boy, is he having a grand time doing it. Everything is accompanied by classic McCloud narration - both self-deprecating and deeply romantic - and, as always, his enthusiasm is utterly infectious.

JERUSALEM ON A PLATE Thursday, 8.30pm, SBS One★★★☆

Cooking shows offer such a flexible format. They can be simple how-to's. They can be fiery competitions. They can be highly specialised (meat, cupcakes, cheese) or incredibly broad, such as Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations. They're often lovely travelogues. And they can also be something like this, a show that's absolutely focused on food but that also introduces us to another country and culture while gently tackling one of the most vexed political impasses of our time. Yotam Ottolenghi is an Israeli Jew and now a successful London restaurateur who returns to his home town, Jerusalem, to reconnect with his roots. And what an education it is. We pride ourselves on being multicultural but we have nothing on this fascinating city. The real ''wow'' moment is when Ottolenghi visits the Palestinian quarter for a home-cooked meal. In terms of production, Jerusalem on a Plate is fairly basic, but this is definitely a show where it's what happens, not how, that packs the punch.

LAST RESORT Wednesday, 8.45pm, Channel Seven★★★☆

There's no doubt Shawn Ryan (The Shield) knows how to make testosterone-soaked action dramas but if any proof were needed, it's here. There's something intensely masculine and muscular about this pilot episode, especially the first half as we're introduced to the crew of the USS Colorado, the biggest, baddest nuclear sub in the US arsenal. (Indeed, if you care to look for the subtext in a giant sausage-shaped nuclear-armed and -powered weapon of mass destruction, go for your life.) But that's not a criticism; it's precisely what makes Last Resort so thrilling and, as all hell breaks loose at about the halfway point, there's a visceral sense of both danger and claustrophobia. It's also shaping up to be a great political thriller with super-high stakes. Blokey, definitely, but a hell of a ride.

PAY TV

ROMANZO CRIMINALETuesday, 8.30pm, Showcase★★★☆

They're spruiking this as a kind of Italian Sopranos but what we really get here is a magnificent Roman Underbelly. All the key pieces are in play: a criminal gang determined to take over the city, a police force as corrupt as it is cruel, a certain amount of explicit violence, and loads of bare bottoms and boobs. This is also set in the 1970s, so cue fabulous architecture and vintage cars, bodyshirts and loud ties, deliciously tousled hair and luxurious moustaches. Beyond the period detail, though, Rome in the '70s was also a city in turmoil and, like Underbelly, the plot here is loosely based on real events. Along with the crime and corruption,

left-wing terrorism is rife, and political assassinations and high-profile kidnappings are frequent front-page fodder. It's a potent mix, and this stylish, gritty thriller makes the most of it all. As we join the action tonight, the criminal gang has invested the proceeds from one such kidnapping in a large amount of heroin and is now preparing to take over the city's small-time drug lords. Rome's last good cop, Scialoja, is hot on the bad guys' heels. And within that gang are some familiar types: the ruthless, charismatic leader, Libano; his clever cool offsider, Freddo, who would like nothing more than to give the badness away; and pretty boy Dandi, who is as mean as he is arrogant. And, for me, it's this character drama that really makes Romanzo compelling. It's a complex tale of good versus evil, but exactly who's wearing the white hat is not at all clear.

HOW DO THEY DO IT? Sunday, 11.30pm, Discovery Science★★★☆

I love this cheerful documentary series, pitched firmly at the tween market but full of interesting factoids guaranteed to give grown-ups plenty of ''Who knew?'' moments. It has a wonderfully broad brief, too, tonight covering chewing gum, fishing hooks, and Lego. So we begin in the Mayan rainforest, where locals still tap rubber trees in the manner learnt from their fathers. We then follow the process through to a stick of high-grade chewie. Next it's off to game fishers in Florida, and thence to Norway, where giant, super-tough fishing hooks are made (to a secret recipe). Our final stop is Legoland. In short, fun for inquiring minds of all ages.

MARY'S BOTTOM LINE Tuesday, 9.30pm, Lifestyle★★★☆

British retail guru Mary Portas is a difficult character to love, but this is an interesting project. As in Australia, Britain's once-thriving textile and clothing industry has been steadily sucked off shore over the past 40 years. Here Portas finds a family manufacturing business, reopens it with the help of the original family and their experienced seamstresses, then takes on some of the area's most disadvantaged to produce a line of thoroughly British undies. All very commendable. What's really to like about this series, though, is how dense and compact it is. Usually we spend an awful lot of time precapping, recapping, and being asked to tear-up over the plight of the long-term unemployed. The latter are certainly part of the story - and their journey one of its pleasures - but in this hour we also get a great insight into the practical realities of manufacturing, retailing, and marketing. It's a strong mix.

THE DAILY SHOW/THE COLBERT REPORT Mon-Fri, 7pm, 7.30pm, Comedy★★★☆

What a strange pair of shows these are. Yes, they're comedy. They're on the Comedy Channel. They win awards for comedy. Lots of them. And they're certainly some of the funniest things on television. But they are also, of course, so much more. Jon Stewart hates people referring to The Daily Show as journalism or as current affairs, but if the political spin is getting too much for you, nothing refreshes quite like a nightly dose of his and Stephen Colbert's sharp, thought-provoking, intelligent satire. With our own elections on the horizon, it makes you wish we had one of these of our own.